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Sept. 29– Two years ago, Phil Penn’s company, PJP Coffee Enterprises Inc., purchased nine Billings coffee kiosks and one in Laurel. Penn closed three kiosks in Lockwood, Main Street in Billings Heights and by Gusick’s Restaurant off King Avenue West, but plans to reopen them when he can find better locations. Penn now operates eight coffee kiosks in Billings, plus a…

Sept. 29– Millions of dollars in city funding for nonprofits is in limbo due to squabbling between Mayor Kirk Caldwell and some City Council members over the release of Grants in Aid funds. The money includes $5.1 million that was approved by taxpayers in a 2012 City Charter amendment, and $8 million that council members earmarked for their districts.

Sept. 29– The Free Press wants to connect readers who have questions about health care reform with experts and answers. This week, we turned to Jan Hudson, a senior policy analyst for the Michigan League for Public Policy, and Paul Duguay, deputy director for the Michigan Association of Health Plans. You’re considered covered, and you don’t have to do anything if you…

Sept. 29– HARLINGEN– The cost of renovating the nine-story Blaschka Tower downtown would far exceed the $4 million that has been referred to throughout the years, further reviews show. Based on the estimates that SpawGlass Contractors, Inc. provided to the city in March 2009, the cost to finish out the rest of the floors would far exceed $4 million, not including…

Sept. 29– Alton Mayor Brant Walker is finding out that it’s one thing to make a campaign promise, but it’s often harder to live up to it. The mayor and the City Council gave Roggio a 90- day consulting contract to work on the Alton Regional Multi-Modal Transportation Center project at the former Robert P. Wadlow Municipal Golf Course, a job that Roggio had been…

And what would be the status of 21 new Yuba County employees and 28 Sutter County workers whose salaries are being paid for by the Act? Yuba and Sutter counties are taking their cue from the state. “Yuba County is in the same boat as every other county in California,” said Russ Brown, spokesman for the county Health and Human Services department.

Sept. 29– Some residents of Boulder, Colo., have referred to recent flood waters as “apocalyptic,” according to published reports, after receiving almost 20 inches of rain. Renee Williams, who grew up in Hazleton, where flooding is rarely a concern, now lives in Boulder and will never forget Sept. 13. Williams and her husband, Brian Nelson, recently bought their first home…

Sept. 29– The other day, one of my Star Tribune colleagues was pulling out of a parking space when a cyclist zoomed out of nowhere, hit his car and shattered his windshield. Last year, Minnesota lawmakers tightened the rules on these solicitations by forbidding medical professionals from advertising how much money an accident victim can gain under the no-fault…

Sept. 29– A lack of transparency in the health care industry costs Americans more than $100 billion a year, according to an ad campaign by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. During the last five years, BCBSNC has made more than $100 million annually for the State Health Plan for teachers, state employees and retirees. Taxpayers will kick in about $2.43 billion…

For instance, public versions of South Carolina’s contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina are heavily redacted, perhaps as much as North Carolina counterparts. Like in North Carolina, the company was allowed to make its own redactions, a state spokesman said. Georgia’s contracts with Cigna and UnitedHealthcare aren’t redacted nearly as…

Sept. 28– MOULTRIE– A Moultrie woman reported a case of credit card fraud Thursday. Phyllis Creed, Gatewood Circle, told deputies she had been contacted by Discover, who told her someone was trying to make a transaction of more than $1,000 at a Myers Grocery store in Michigan using her credit card. Creed said twice before someone has charged $80 and $30 to her Discover…

Sept. 29– TRAVERSE CITY– Jane Bates said she and her co-workers like to joke that “you’ve got to be a redneck if you have to get a second job to pay for the gas for your first job.” Bates works about 24 hours a week, driving from Fife Lake to clean two medical buildings at night. On October 1, they can start singing up for insurance on the Michigan Health Insurance Marketplace…

Sept. 29– TRAVERSE CITY– For more than two years Northwestern Bank’s then-president and two other executives tried to hide in excess of $38 million in loan defaults by the bank’s largest borrower from the bank’s board of directors and government regulators, federal authorities allege. The FDIC notice also accused Calcutt of improper financial gain based on an…

Sept. 29– MODESTO– The McHenry Mansion, restored to its former glory, marked its 130th anniversary by throwing open its doors to the public on Saturday. “It looks just like it did before,” said docent Margaret Scheuber, who was keeping a tally of the people who trickled through the landmark at 905 15th St. in downtown Modesto to see the work done since a Dec. 6, 2011, blaze…

Sept. 29– Many business owners celebrated this summer when the U.S. Treasury Department delayed penalties for middle to large employers who don’t provide medical coverage to their full-time employees starting in 2014.. The $2,000- a-year-per-employee fine that had been scheduled to go into affect on Jan. 1 now won’t be imposed until a year after that.

Sept. 29– In late June, a Philadelphia federal judge called former Tulsan Layn Phillips in London while he was watching Wimbledon– to talk football. “Whether I was playing tight end on the Memorial High School football team or collegiate tennis at the University of Tulsa, never did I see myself as a neutral presiding over complicated disputes, much less a dispute…